Building a Personalized Learning Experience
3-day sprint to reimagine student engagement
ROLE
UX/UI Designer
TIMELINE
3 days
TEAM
4 Designers
SKILLS
Rapid Prototyping
Design Studios Design System
Dashboard Design
OVERVIEW
I participated in a 3-day internal hackathon focused on reimagining our student dashboard to make learning more engaging and personalized. Our team of four designers set out to modernize the interface and surface the most meaningful insights for students from day one.
THE CHALLENGE
Learners often struggled to track their progress and access relevant tools and resources efficiently.
The existing dashboard lacked personalization in helping users achieve their unique learning goals, make meaningful progress, and gain visibility into their skill development. Over time, the navigation expanded into an overwhelming list of links, many of which were unclear, redundant, or underused.
This created an opportunity to rethink not only the dashboard itself, but also the underlying information architecture to make the learning experience more intuitive and goal oriented.
DESIGN APPROACH
Our goal was to reinvent both onboarding and the dashboard to provide a clear, personalized, and action-oriented experience that supported each user’s goals, encouraged engagement, and built momentum from the start.
Working under tight constraints, we moved fast but strategically:
Audited the existing dashboard to identify unused, redundant or low-value data.
Used heatmap data to decide what navigation items mattered most.
Referenced insights from previous interviews to understand how learners currently used (or ignored) the dashboard.
Sketched and prototyped new layouts emphasizing progress tracking, weekly goals and to dos, and personalized recommendations.
Conducted design studio sessions to align on layout priorities and gather feedback.
Added an onboarding flow to personalize the dashboard experience from the start, allowing new users to set learning goals and interests that shaped their dashboard view.
This approach encouraged creativity and collaboration, allowing us each to explore multiple parts of the flow quickly while staying grounded in user needs from past research.
Dashboard audit
Dashboard heatmap
Early dashboard sketches
Design ideas
FINAL SOLUTION
Our redesigned concept introduced a cohesive onboarding and dashboard experience that worked together to create a more personalized and action-oriented learning journey.
The new onboarding flow gathered each user’s goals, interests, and experience level to shape a personalized dashboard experience from the start. This informed recommended content, improved visibility into assignments, and surfaced tailored skill insights that supported each learner’s growth.
Key improvements included:
Introduced a guided onboarding flow that captured learners’ goals and interests to personalize recommendations and dashboard content.
Replaced the underutilized top-right area of the dashboard with a “Start Learning” to-do list that gave students a clear jumping-off point to explore the platform.
Reimagined the “My Learning” section to be scalable and evolve into a more personalized recommendation area as additional user data becomes available.
Added a “My Assignments” section in place of the previously front-and-center “New and Upcoming Releases” module, which was rarely used by students.
Introduced a dedicated “Skills” section where students could easily view passed assessments and explore areas for continued skill development.
Together, the onboarding and dashboard redesign created a more motivating and relevant experience that will help students understand where to start, track their progress, and stay engaged with their learning goals from day one.
IMPACT + REFLECTION
Our concept earned the Customer Obsession Award - Best User Focus during the hackathon!
The onboarding flow is now being implemented on the platform for new users, and the data gathered during that experience will be used to surface content curated to their experience level, the software they use, and their individual interests and goals.
Began introducing recommended content across other areas of the platform, making steady progress toward an experience that feels less one size fits all and more tailored to each learner.
It was really fun to explore a wide range of concepts for reimagining the dashboard, and collaborating closely with the other designers was a highlight since we rarely get the chance to work on the same project.